MSS: Elliott McGill

Elliott McGill is the youngest head coach of a Division I collegiate swim team in the United States, but it's not an issue for the 25-year-old. He talks about the challenges and the rewards of taking on the Eastern Illinois University teams, as well as talking about his younger brothers, Tyler and Colin.

Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is the Morning Swim Show for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011. I'm your host Peter Busch. In the FINIS Monitor today, we'll talk to Elliott McGill. He's the head swim coach for men and women at Eastern Illinois University. According to our research he is the youngest head swim coach at a Division One school. Elliott McGill joins us right now in the FINIS Monitor from Charleston, Illinois. Coach McGill, how're you doing today?

Elliott McGill: Doing good, Peter. How are you?

Peter Busch: Good. Is it still strange to have that head coach attached to your name?

Elliott McGill: A little bit. It's been kind of surreal for the last couple months.

Peter Busch: Tell me how it happened, coz I know you were a swimmer there. You were a grad assisting coach. But that's a big jump to head coach.

Elliott McGill: Yeah, the former coach, Matt Bos, left in May to go to IUPUI, and Barbara Burke and the athletic director here and the administration kind of worked with me in -- as I kind of tried to put my name in the hat to be promoted here. And after a couple meetings in early June, they kind of made the call. They felt I could do the best job for the swimmers here and the program here, and about middle of June they went ahead and made the call.

Peter Busch: What was your pitch to them that you were ready for this?

Elliott McGill: That I knew what was best for the kids on the team right now. You know, as a former swimmer here, I had a lot of friends that swim here, I knew a lot of the alumni. Then, when you talk about knowing the program and what the kids had done the last three years under Matt Bos, I kind of knew where they needed to go and what kind of training they might need. And I also had a very large role as a graduate assistant. I was involved in recruiting, dry land program, writing practices for daily practices up to weekly plans, monthly plans, so, you know, it just kind of made sense in terms of some continuity and what was best for the swimmers on the team right now to keep me on.

Peter Busch: I know there are some advantages to being young. You can relate to the swimmers maybe more. But it's also a disadvantage in terms of sometimes kids won't see you as that authority figure that they might see somebody twice your age, whether that's arbitrary or not. How do you overcome that hurdle?

Elliott McGill: It's kind of a day to day battle. I have to hand some credit off to the swimmers on this team. They're very mature about how they approach the sport. It's very rare that I have to say something about motivation, about trying hard. And I think this is a team culture that was created here over the last couple years where they come in and take care of their business and I don't -- really don't have to play too active of a role in motivating them. On the other hand, I'm kind of an old soul. I don't -- I'm married, I stay inside a lot, so they don't see me at all too much outside of the pool.

Peter Busch: So you're not gonna be, like, ordering drinks together at the bars on campus or anything.

Elliott McGill: No, not gonna be doing that. Me and my wife like to stay inside and watch movies and do Hulu Plus and all that kind of stuff.

Peter Busch: Interestingly, I heard your little brother is one of the swimmers on the team?

Elliott McGill: Yes, my little brother Colin is a junior on the swim team and he's doing pretty well.

Peter Busch: So maybe he can be your ally in the locker there. Come on, guys, my brother is a good guy, cut him some slack?

Elliott McGill: Knowing Colin, a little bit. I imagine that he probably rags on me just a little bit behind my back, but in a teasing, brotherly way probably.

Peter Busch: We should mention real quick, your older brother, Tyler, is one of the best butterfliers in the country. So there is some swimming gene certainly in the family.

Elliott McGill: Yeah, yeah, actually, it somehow skipped me and kind of got passed down to the other three kids in the family.

Peter Busch: You turned out all right. I think the parents would be plenty proud of you as well.

Elliott McGill: Yeah, and I think they might be.

Peter Busch: What is your coaching style?

Elliott McGill: I kind of, I guess, have a little bit more of a teaching style. I kind of came to school to be a teacher and the more I got into swimming, the more I thought I want to coach. So we spend a lot of time discussing kind of the opportunities that you have within each set, within each drill, to kind of further yourself, just as any teacher would kind of want to describe why you wanna read the book or why it's important to notice information. And so, it's definitely more of a teaching than coaching anything.

Peter Busch: Well, how's recruiting going? I imagine that can be another tricky part.

Elliott McGill: Yeah, recruiting is going really well for us this year. We have -- like I said, we have a great group of kids on the swim team. And every time we have a recruit come on campus, they have nothing but great things to say about our team and they kind -- you know, the kids on the team make it really easy on me to make phone calls and tell them about how good Eastern Illinois is for them.

Peter Busch: Well, good for you, man. Great story.

Elliott McGill: Thank you.

Peter Busch: It's great that it's your alma mater and it's a program that you already love and care about, and, hopefully –

Elliott McGill: Yes.

Peter Busch: …take them to the next level.

Elliott McGill: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Peter Busch: All right, well, that's Elliott McGill joining us in the FINIS Monitor today. And that is it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.